Want to Start Your Day at 100%? Start the Night Before

It doesn’t matter if you’re a mother, an athlete, both, or neither. To perform at our best every day, no matter what we do, we need to reserve time for recovery.

Adequate rest and healthy sleep every night are essential to maintaining peak performance. It’s recommended that kids get between 9 and 11 hours of sleep per night. For adults, it’s somewhere between 7 and 9 hours.

I say, be in tune with your body and what it needs; maybe that’s six hours a night, maybe it’s 10. Be aware of how much sleep you need to wake up the next day at your best, and then maintain that number.

Set a bedtime that works, and stick to it. Try setting aside some time beforehand for “wind-down time,” i.e., two hours before bed, turn off all computers, televisions, tablets and phones. (This applies to adults and children.)

Before you settle in, settle down and give your body and mind time to recharge and recover.